The Olympics By Numbers

Rio de Janeiro will host the Summer Olympics Games from 5 to 21 August 2016. This makes it the first South American country to have ever hosted the Games. So we’ve put together a few other facts that you might not have been aware of

1 – A refugee team will be allowed to compete under the banner of the Olympic flag at the Rio Games. Up to 10 athletes will be allowed to compete after fleeing their countries.

112 – Golf will return to the Olympics after a 112 year absence. It has only featured at two previous games – 1900 and 1904.

0 – No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games

393AD – This was the year that the early Olympics Games was banned for being a pagan festival as it honoured the Greek god Zeus. French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin called for a revival of the tradition and in 1896 the first Olympics Summer Games took place in Greece.

Carl Schuhmann (left) from Germany was the most successful athlete at the inaugural Olympic Games in 1896. He competed in wrestling, gymnastics and weightlifting.

18 – Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina’s holds the record for winning the most amount of medals in history at a Summer Olympic Games.

1948 – Was the year that the first Paralympics took place. It was held in London for wounded war veterans.

60,000 – This is the amount of meals that will be made per day to help feed the athletes at the Rio Olympic Games.

The mascots Vinicius (left) and Tom for the Rio Games. They were named after two Latin American musicians.

10 – The youngest medal winner at the Olympics was Greek gymnast Dimitrous Loundras. At the age of 10 he won bronze in the 1896 Olympics. He went on to become an admiral in the Greek Navy.

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